Any way to reduce PC/HDD vibration?

[Sonny Fontaine]

Hello,

I placed my PC on rubber anti-vibration pads (intended for washing machines), but it doesn't give me the result I want - I can still hear slight humming sound coming from my PC. I know for a fact that the source of that humming sound is from one of my HDD, because when this HDD goes into sleep mode all that sound goes away.

I tried switching those anti-vibration pads upside down, even tilting my PC to one side, to switch PC's weight still the humming sound does not disappear.

I was wondering maybe there is more effective way to get rid of the sound? Maybe instead of PC pads, there are some pads for HDD?

P.S. My PC case is Fractal Design Define R6.

Thanks.

[emoticorpse]

do you have one of those cases where you actually screw it into place? or those plastic twist knob things to secure it?

[plat]

I know exactly what you mean. Some years ago, same thing--vibrating at the same frequency as my nearby refrigerator. It was horrible.

I tried moving the PC (couldn't move the fridge anywhere else), tried padding the "feet" at the bottom of the case,and nothing worked. The vibration was something that developed over time, it didn't happen as soon as I got the machine.

Only thing that made it STOP already was replacing the drive.

[Sonny Fontaine]

Originally posted by emoticorpse:

do you have one of those cases where you actually screw it into place? or those plastic twist knob things to secure it?

No, it's actually like this - you screw in your HDD some rubber little pads into 4 holes, and than you just hang your HDDs like a painting on the wall on the cable side of the case. In my Fractal Design case there is place for 2 HDDs. I'm not sure if you can clearly picture what I mean, I explained as best as possible how my HDDs are mounted in case.

[Sonny Fontaine]

Originally posted by plat:

I know exactly what you mean. Some years ago, same thing--vibrating at the same frequency as my nearby refrigerator. It was horrible.

I tried moving the PC (couldn't move the fridge anywhere else), tried padding the "feet" at the bottom of the case,and nothing worked. The vibration was something that developed over time, it didn't happen as soon as I got the machine.

Only thing that made it STOP already was replacing the drive.

Well I can't just changing my HDDs left and right, cannot afford that :D

I think I should also explain this better - it's not like vibration humming sound is very loud, for instance, when I'm watching movie or series on PC on normal sound, I practically can't hear that humming, but in complete silence in room, in CAN hear it when sitting near my pc, so that's why it gets annoying. Plus I can hear it when I'm playing some exploring game, like tomb raider, uncharted, when there's no action scene, I'm aslo hearing humming (along with GPU fans of course), but the humming is the factor that really gets on my nerves.

[emoticorpse]

Originally posted by Sonny Fontaine:

Originally posted by emoticorpse:

do you have one of those cases where you actually screw it into place? or those plastic twist knob things to secure it?

No, it's actually like this - you screw in your HDD some rubber little pads into 4 holes, and than you just hang your HDDs like a painting on the wall on the cable side of the case. In my Fractal Design case there is place for 2 HDDs. I'm not sure if you can clearly picture what I mean, I explained as best as possible how my HDDs are mounted in case.

I really can't, but I imagine they are secure. Are you sure no cables are touching the drive?

Can you re-position the drive to where it's flat?

[Sonny Fontaine]

Originally posted by emoticorpse:

Originally posted by Sonny Fontaine:

No, it's actually like this - you screw in your HDD some rubber little pads into 4 holes, and than you just hang your HDDs like a painting on the wall on the cable side of the case. In my Fractal Design case there is place for 2 HDDs. I'm not sure if you can clearly picture what I mean, I explained as best as possible how my HDDs are mounted in case.

I really can't, but I imagine they are secure. Are you sure no cables are touching the drive?

Can you re-position the drive to where it's flat?

Here a picture of how's the mounting of HDDs are in my case
https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Fractal-Design-Refine-R6-On-KitGuru-Motherboard-Side.jpg

There is no other option, at least with my AIO build, there's some extra mounting insde other side of case, but since I'm using AIO, I modded this case (the manufactured made this modding possible), so the only option to mount HDD is like this.

And no, there are no cable touching the HDD.

[Illusion of Progress]

I get an access denied trying to click that link.

I have a Fractal Arc Midi so it's a bit older, but the hard drives screw into the tray through rubber rings, which should help absorb some of the vibration. The first picture here shows it...

https://www.anandtech.com/show/4878/fractal-design-arc-midi-the-mid-tower-youve-been-waiting-for/3

My nephew used one of the Define R6 cases a couple years ago but I can't remember if the hard drives basically used the same method, but since that case line is more about low noise levels than airflow I'm going to want to say it did/does.

I have three hard drives in my PC right now. I've had up to five. Vibration has never been an issue for me. Yes, hard drives make noise/vibrate when running, but even with three to five of them, it wasn't enough to be an overly large issue for me. And I have an overkill CPU cooler and a GPU fan curve set conservatively (meaning allow higher temperatures as the expense of lower noise) both for the purpose of minimizing noise because loud constant or varying noise bothers me. I do also have the hard drives set to spin down after a set time (Windows defaults to this anyway). My three drives are one for games, one for storage, and one copy for backup, so there's no reason to keep them running all the time anyway. But even if all mine were running, I'd hear them, but never feel the vibration.

If a single hard drive is that loud/vibrating that much, I would imagine either that particular drive is just loud (some are louder than others), not working right, or the ambient environment is just that quiet.

If a particular drive is making a noise at a later point when it wasn't before, it's possibly developing a fault IMO.

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

Replace the HDD with SSD, sweet silence.

[emoticorpse]

I would have thought your HDD was possibly being used while you weren't aware and producing the noise for a reason, but that doesn't sound logical since your pc goes to sleep and I don't think it would go to sleep if the drive was in use like that.

[Joke]

I used rubber bands to suspend a HDD in my previous PC.
The 5.25" drive bay had enough space to suspend a 3.5" HDD, but if your case doesn't have one there might be other options.

I used the round, textile covered rubber bands you find in shops where you can buy cloth, sewing supplies etc.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Why not just make HDDs external. Problem solved.

[pasa]

There is solution that uses rubber bands to hold the HDD. Those handle vibrations much better than pads that still transfer lot to the box. You can really just create the suspension yourself out of rubber band meant for pants.

Also not hard to make spacers from spare foam from boxes of many products, just make sure the heat can escape.

Just googling for "silent hdd mount rubber bands" show plenty pictures for ideas.

[_I_]

hdd will not vibrate enough to make noise if its inside the case

[Carlsberg]

Looking at pics of case (as best i can), the issue may be with the mounting trays not being secure enough for a HDD, more suited to an SSD. They look like they just hook in and fasten with one screw, the hooked in end may have the ability to move/vibrate. Try to insulate the part of the tray that hooks in to prevent movement and metal to metal contact.

[Washell]

https://www.amazon.com/Akust-Hard-Drive-Vibration-Screw/dp/B010D13AFC